Guilty plea a degree of closure for so many

The prom is coming up. So is the senior picnic. But, thankfully, no preliminary hearing.

No long, taxing murder trial.

And so a community just might be able to heal.

Scott Fisher was worried for the students at Poway High School, where he’s principal. They’ve been through so much.

A trial would have been brutal. Details would have emerged. Details of a rape and murder of one of their own, Chelsea King, 17.

Fisher didn’t want them to be subjected to that. He wanted to protect them. But in this day and age, the way information moves, how could he?

How could anyone?

Parents and teachers would have been just as helpless.

“I think this allows the kids to move ahead in some ways,” Fisher said.

John Albert Gardner III pleaded guilty Friday to Chelsea’s murder, as well as to the killing of Escondido teen Amber Dubois.

He goes away for life, guaranteed. In return, he was spared the death penalty.

The King family supported the plea agreement, in part, to help the community in the healing process.

Oh, many wanted to see Gardner with a needle in a vein, no doubt. He’s the poster boy for someone who’s deserving of the ultimate penalty. But the plea agreement puts an end to so much.

The family of Amber, 14, knows for certain who killed their daughter, who went missing more than a year ago and whose remains were found in a remote area of Pala in March.

The King family can move ahead with the effort to bring about changes in the legal system.

And a shocked, anguished community just might be able to start thinking about Little League Baseball, Sunday barbecues, trips to the beach — not a senseless, horrible murder that got national attention. And no wonder.

Chelsea went for a run near Lake Hodges on Feb. 25 and never came home. The community rallied in search of her. Thousands volunteered in the effort.

Gardner, a convicted sex offender, was arrested that weekend and Chelsea’s body was found in a shallow grave near the lake a few days later.

At that time, a community reeled.

And then mourned. A memorial service for Chelsea attracted 5,000 people. A run in her honor at the same park where she went missing saw 3,500 take part.

It’s over, in some ways. The TV cameras won’t be coming back. If there had been a trial, they would have. Day after day after day.

The students are remembering Chelsea in a positive light, Fisher said. Much of the mourning has passed. “A trial would have been a horrible distraction.”

It’s been hard on so many here.

“I still break down,” said Dan Schaitel, Chelsea’s high school cross country coach.

Schaitel coached Chelsea for two seasons. She was a special young person. The decision made by the Kings had to be tough, he said. They lost so much losing this child.

“They did what they had to do for the best of everyone,” Schaitel said. “They’re some of the strongest people I’ve had the chance to be with.”